Scarlet
by maka-tsubaki
Summary: One shot about Jellal and Erza. Set post Tower of Heaven, but before he gets his memories back.
1. Chapter 1

**Scarlet.**

The color of the roses in his garden, before they came. There was always sun on those roses, their velvety red soaking in the brightness.

The color of fresh blood. The color of seeing his family be ripped apart by those horrible soldiers, and him taken away. The last thing he remembers is seeing a shining spray of blood spattered across his teddy bear. (What? He had had one. Wasn't he allowed?)

The color of a girl who'd lead a rebellion just to break him out of chains. Hair flying, brown eye flashing- eye? That's right. She lost the other trying to save him. Funny thing, that. Why would he have needed to be saved?

The color of the flames that rose from the burning ships. Mixed with gold. The color of losing her, again. The color of betrayal, for those he'd made her leave.

The color that clouded his eyes with hatred against everything, and a fanatic drive to make things right. Only, it wasn't right at all, was it?

The color of her blood. That scarlet, he regretted more than anything. Why would he regret that? It was bad that she was bleeding, but it hadn't been his fault, had it?

The color of her pants and sword hilt. Why would she have a sword, anyways? And why would it be pointing at his chest? She wasn't wrong to do it, he knew. So what had he done first?

The color of her hair. That's why he remembers.

 **A/N The roses are totally made up, as is the teddy sadly. But really, imagine Jellal with a teddy! It'd be soooo cute!**

 **Hey guys, it's Tsubaki, I'm so excited to share this account :) (ie, slightly terrified) This is my first story, so tell me what you think.**

 **-Tsubaki**


	2. Chapter 2

"Erza, I can't see you anymore." Jellal pulled away from Erza slowly.

"What are you talking about? Jellal, you can't leave again- can't leave _me_ again-"

Jellal chuckled darkly, indicating his eyes with a wave of his hand. "I got in a fight, Erza. I was talking literally."

He winced as she struck him across the face. "What the _hell_ , Jellal?!" Erza's voice broke. "Why were you pretending you were fine?"

"I couldn't tell you. I couldn't admit that the one thing I always wanted to see, I can't."

Erza stared at him for a second. "Idiot."

"What did I do-?"

She grabbed his cloak, pulling him through the guildhall and out onto the street. "We're going to see Porlyusica-san."

And when his new eyes opened, the color was just like he'd remembered it.

LINEBREAKLINEBREAKLINEBREAK

 **Okay, maybe I meant the previous one to actually be a one-shot and I'd leave it alone but it was that or study for finals, and Maka makes me write (I IS EVIL -maka), so I'm back.**

 **-Tsubaki**

 **Also, thanks so much for your guys' support, I'm just starting to write and having people encourage me is awesome (SHE DOESN'T BELIEVE HOW AMAZING SHE IS AT WRITING -maka) And Maka keeps writing all over my author's note. :/ MAKA! (hehehe)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey Guys, Tsubaki is at camp for a while, but she finally agreed to let me post some stories she wrote a while ago. After the original two-shot, she decided to write these along the same timeline. I hope you enjoy! :)**

 **-Maka**

The mage leveled the glowing sphere towards Erza. "Goodbye, Titania." The orb spun forwards, faster than the redhead could duck. In one last motion, the Requip mage threw her sword-

Two bodies collapsed to the ground. Erza pressed her hands to his side. "Jellal? What are you doing here? Jellal! Answer me! Jellal…" Her voice trailed off into a broken refrain. "Wake up, Jellal. Wake up." The cobalt-haired mage's mouth bubbled with blood as his chest tried to rise and fall despite the hole through his body. And then, abruptly, stopped. The woman holding his body pulled it against her chest. "I love you, Jellal." She pressed a kiss to his forehead before gently laying down his lifeless frame. She stood slowly, requipping into her Purgatory armour. "None of you are getting out of here."

The last mage lay on the guild's floor, hacking up blood. Erza dropped her sword as it returned to its pocket dimension, her sides heaving and crimson blood spattered over her rent armour. "That was for you, Jellal." She returned to the dead Heavenly Body mage's side. She stroked his bloodied hair, her left eye swimming with tears. "Why did you have to get in front of me, ne? My armour could have taken that blast. You could have been fine. You were going to give up your quest for redemption, and we were going to live somewhere nice with Meredy, and have kids, and get your name cleared with the Magic Council, and we were going to-" Her voice broke off as a tear fell from her eye onto Jellal's crimson tattoo. "Why did you have to save me?" The scarlet-haired mage held the man's corpse to her chest. Her voice was hollow and broken, her eyes haunted. "Why did you have to save me?"

Natsu and Wendy burst into the Dark Guild's hall. Wendy rushed to Erza's side. "Erza? Who-" She stopped talking, laying her hands on Jellal's body. Her eyes widened, and her delicate hands flew up, covering her mouth. "Oh Mavis. Oh Mavis. Natsu, Jellal's dead." The Sky Dragon Slayer's voice trembled, an octave higher than usual.

Erza's head turned almost mechanically to the younger girl. "You can't save him, right?" The child nodded.

"I could heal his body, but I can't restart his heart."

The redhead's face set. "Heal his body, then. I'll deal with his heart." She released her grip on Jellal's body and stepped over to Natsu. "I took out the guild, in case you were wondering. They're locked in a storeroom. Most of them."

 _The ones who lived,_ the Salamander added silently. "Lucy and Gray are outside. They finished dealing with that wyvern." His curiosity got the best of him. "But Erza, why was Jellal here?" he inquired confusedly.

"I don't know." The scarlet-haired mage's attention snapped over to Wendy, who had finished patching up Jellal's body. The healer was pale, and shaking with exhaustion.

She looked up. "It's a lot… harder to heal… when you don't have the potential of the body's healing to rely on." She staggered away from his broken body.

Erza's silhouette shone with light as she requipped into her Lightning Empress Armour. "Wendy, Natsu, stand back." Her dead voice brooked no argument as she touched the tip of her spear to Jellal's heart.

Natsu ran at her nonetheless. "Erza, what are you doing?!" One sweep of her arm made him fly back until he crashed into a wall. Erza returned to her task, concentrating.

A shimmer of electricity writhed around the spear before striking Jellal's body. His back arched, mouth opening as if in shock before collapsing back onto the flagstones. Erza hissed. "Come on, Jellal." The spear shocked him again, and again he collapsed without a sign of life. The Requip mage yelled. "Jellal Fernandes, _wake up!_ " His body raised off the ground as his mouth opened again in a silent scream. Erza tossed the spear aside, kneeling. "I'm so sorry, Jellal. I thought it would work…"

And the male's chest rose and fell. "We need to get him out of here!" Erza requipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armour. "I'll cover you."


	4. Chapter 4

Something old.

They'd loved each other since they were children. They'd made a family, or what passed for one in that broken old Tower. He'd always loved watching her comfort Sho and Millianna when they needed it. Wishing that he could do the same. Then, seven years. Alone. Then seven more. She was back, and their old love stayed.

Something new.

The stiff formal wear. It wasn't like he'd ever _needed_ a tuxedo, not for years. Maybe he'd had one as Siegrain, but he hadn't exactly had time to pack before the Magic Council discovered that he'd been playing them all along. It wasn't very comfortable. Although, he could only imagine how Meredy felt. Ultear had forced her into a poofy pink dress, and the girl had been sending him glares from across the room for _ages._ Even though it was her fault that he was standing in front of Makarov, shifting from foot to foot.

Something borrowed.

The day. He was still reviled by so many, himself most of all. He had to atone, and he knew that. Which was why stealing a day to be happy was wrong. He'd just have to return another one. But a borrowed day to be happy was better than none at all.

Something blue.

The colour of his hair and her guild mark. And the colour of the decorations that covered the guild hall. (Really, he would have preferred scarlet.)


	5. Chapter 5

p style="text-align: center;"strongThis last one is really short, but heart wrenching all the same :(/strong/p  
p style="text-align: center;"strong-Maka/strong/p  
p style="text-align: left;"span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.38; background-color: transparent;"It wasn't violent. There was that, at least. In fact, Jellal thought, it was rather like falling asleep. A simply cast spell, and then they all said goodbye. Through the bars, of course. After all, Jellal-as-Siegrain had betrayed the Council, and tried to resurrect the greatest dark mage of all time. But that didn't mean they weren't good enough to let him see her face one last time. She had been crying, clearly. That was the only reason he would have wanted to survive. But he'd seen the blonde and pink-headed mages wrap Erza in a warm hug. She had another reason to live now./span/p 


End file.
